CI/CD notifications

CI sends emails that nobody reads, or posts to Slack/Telegram where they drown among memes. Notifly provides an isolated “infrastructure-only” channel — messages are immediately visible, don’t get lost, and don’t distract colleagues.

Secrets

The examples below use two secrets:

• NOTIFLY_URL — the full URL of your server, e.g. https://notifly.example.com
• NOTIFLY_TOKEN — app token (prefix A)

In GitHub: Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret. In GitLab: Settings → CI/CD → Variables → Add variable (set “Masked”).

GitHub Actions

.github/workflows/build.yml:

name: Build & Notify
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run build

  notify:
    needs: build
    if: always()
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Notifly
        env:
          NOTIFLY_URL:   ${{ secrets.NOTIFLY_URL }}
          NOTIFLY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NOTIFLY_TOKEN }}
          STATUS:        ${{ needs.build.result }}
        run: |
          if [ "$STATUS" = "success" ]; then
            TITLE="✅ ${{ github.repository }} build OK"
            PRIO=4
          else
            TITLE="❌ ${{ github.repository }} build FAILED"
            PRIO=9
          fi
          MSG="Branch: ${{ github.ref_name }}
Commit: ${{ github.sha }}
By: ${{ github.actor }}
Run: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}"
          curl -s --max-time 10 \
            "$NOTIFLY_URL/message?token=$NOTIFLY_TOKEN" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            -d "$(jq -n --arg t "$TITLE" --arg m "$MSG" --argjson p "$PRIO" \
                  '{title:$t, message:$m, priority:$p}')"

Reusable action — reuse

Place into .github/actions/notifly/action.yml:

name: 'Notifly send'
inputs:
  title:    {required: true}
  message:  {required: true}
  priority: {default: '5'}
runs:
  using: composite
  steps:
    - shell: bash
      env:
        NOTIFLY_URL:   ${{ env.NOTIFLY_URL   }}
        NOTIFLY_TOKEN: ${{ env.NOTIFLY_TOKEN }}
      run: |
        curl -s --max-time 10 \
          "$NOTIFLY_URL/message?token=$NOTIFLY_TOKEN" \
          -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
          -d "$(jq -n --arg t '${{ inputs.title }}' \
                       --arg m '${{ inputs.message }}' \
                       --argjson p ${{ inputs.priority }} \
                       '{title:$t, message:$m, priority:$p}')"

Usage:

- uses: ./.github/actions/notifly
  with:
    title: '🚀 deploy started'
    message: 'release ${{ github.ref_name }}'
    priority: 5

GitLab CI

.gitlab-ci.yml:

stages: [build, notify]

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - npm ci && npm test && npm run build

notify:success:
  stage: notify
  when: on_success
  script:
    - |
      curl -s --max-time 10 \
        "$NOTIFLY_URL/message?token=$NOTIFLY_TOKEN" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d "$(jq -n \
          --arg t '✅ '"$CI_PROJECT_PATH"' build OK' \
          --arg m 'Branch: '"$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"$'\nCommit: '"$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA"$'\nURL: '"$CI_PIPELINE_URL" \
          '{title:$t, message:$m, priority:4}')"

notify:failure:
  stage: notify
  when: on_failure
  script:
    - |
      curl -s --max-time 10 \
        "$NOTIFLY_URL/message?token=$NOTIFLY_TOKEN" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d "$(jq -n \
          --arg t '❌ '"$CI_PROJECT_PATH"' build FAILED' \
          --arg m 'Branch: '"$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"$'\nCommit: '"$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA"$'\nURL: '"$CI_PIPELINE_URL" \
          '{title:$t, message:$m, priority:9}')"

Other useful notifications

• Long build (> 10 min) — alert ‘something is wrong’.
• New release — separate event with changelog.
• Coverage regression below threshold — priority 5 so it isn’t missed.
• Security issues found in npm audit / pip-audit — priority 8.

Benefits

• One channel for the entire infra. Push → build → push → deploy → push.
• No ‘build #12345 failed’ emails in the inbox where they get lost.
• Progress visible on the phone. Especially convenient for deployments at night or on the road.